Understanding The Keurig.
First let's talk about what a Keurig is. If you're not familiar with the term and what it does, The Keurig is basically a coffee maker that brews ground coffee for you without hardly any mess and is highly efficient with it's use of coffee.
We'll about about how it works, and the pros and cons associated with Keurig coffee makers.
How it works: Keurig coffee pots work by using a puncture needle that presses down into the Keurig cups (Or K-cup for short.) when they are inserted into the brewing slot. After the top hole is punctured a second is created in the bottom, allowing super hot water to flow through the K-cup and into your mug down below.
After brewing cleanup is super easy and is done simply by opening the machine brewing compartment back up and disposing of the K-cup.
There are many different types of Keurigs available from single cup Keurigs at home that will run you around $100-$200 to monster Keurig machines that can cost over $10,000. (The 10k Keurig is pretty amazing. I've used one at my work place and I'm in love with it.)
Keurigs are also great if you have trouble with coffee grounds getting into your cup, as their specific design keeps grounds from getting out of the K-cup almost 100% of the time.
The Pros of The Keurig Experience.
The first and probably most obvious pro of a Keurig is convenience of using one. With such little efforts of just tossing a K-Cup in and pressing a button it's hard overlook the appeal.
If you're already read my article on Ground Coffee vs Instant Coffee then you already know that instant coffee comes at a cost of flavor. There's some awesome instant coffees out there like Boomi's Instant Coffee that don't lose as much of their flavor but the fact remains the instant coffee overall does not have as rich of a flavor as ground coffee.
With the introduction of the Keurig and the K-cup we now have the easy and quick access of instant coffee built into a ground coffee brewing machine. Making Keurig coffee is super easy, and most Keurigs have their own water filter and reservoir so you don't even have to fill it up every time you use it.
Another great benefit is that almost all Keurig machines are easy to understand and customize for how large of a cup of coffee you want, temperature, strength of the beverage itself, and many times you can buy a reusable filter so you can even put your own ground coffee into it.
Keurig K-cups are also great for freshness, because each K-cup pod stays sealed until it's used. Coffee freshness is always a concern of mine, and while I consider it a mortal sin for myself to throw away all but the worst aged coffee (Meaning actually spoiled.) I still try to keep my coffee use as fresh as possible.
One more benefit that's often over looked is that Keurigs not only give you the ability to make instant coffee, they also have K-cup variants sporting hot or cold tea, lemonade, cappuccinos, lattes, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and pretty much whatever else you can find available on the internet for K-cups.
That amount of flavors designed in K-cups is vast and covers so many different flavors it's pretty much mind blowing.
The benefits of a Keurig coffee maker are high, and it's hard to not be tempted to buy one. I was tempted myself and I gave in, and I haven't regretted it for a single second.
I personally most often find myself using the reusable coffee filter so that I have access to the super easy to use Keurig machine and don't have to buy expensive K-cups, which brings me next to the Keurig's cons.
The Cons, Man.
Now to be fair, we have to not only include how awesome it is, but also the drawbacks. You know when you're in a job interview and they ask you what your strengths and weaknesses are? This is it man. The Keurig kryptonite.
The biggest con, the $$MONEY$$. Keurig machines themselves almost always cost a fair bit more than your average percolating coffee maker, but even after you pay for the machine itself K-cups are vastly more expensive than bags of ground coffee.
A bag of gourmet flavored coffee typically runs anywhere from $10-$20 dollars for the best stuff in a 4-8Oz bag. These bags typically let you make anywhere from 60 to 120 cups of coffee. Although they have become cheaper in recent years, K-cups can cost anywhere from $20-$40 for about the same amount per cup. (See this is why I love my reusable filter, I get the best of both worlds.)
Next, and this is important for anyone who entertains especially, you can only brew one cup of coffee at a time, so there is no "Making a pot of coffee for your friends." This takes away the time saving the Keurig offers and actually makes the time spent preparing coffee if you have three people or more using the Keurig for coffee.
The final con I want to mention is that since you are not using a drip percolator like you would find in most households the cup of coffee you get may not offer you the same level of thickness or creamy flavor that drip machines do offer.
My Personal Take.
With the pros and cons relevant to most of us revealed I still lean very heavily on the favorable side of a Keurig machine. I actually bought my machine JUST for the purpose of having a reusable filter, because I absolutely cannot live without the great interface and ease of use my Keurig offers me.
And because I have one friends and family can either buy me ground/bean or K-cup coffee and I can use it all with joy.
Keep on sipping my fellow coffee lovers!
Thanks for stopping by Friggen Cawfee and reading this article! As always I’m more than glad to help answer your questions and provide input for all your coffee questions.
You can email me at friggencawfee@gmail.com
– Mark, Friggen Cawfee Connoisseur